Valkyrie Profile: LennethReview

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Resurrecting this classic on the PSP is nearly as good as the original game.

By Jeff Haynes

Take the limited run of a critically acclaimed RPG released almost six years ago. Now add to that the hype surrounding a title that regularly fetches more than $200 dollars online. Mix that with a lead-up to a forthcoming sequel and a new port over to the PSP and you get Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, the latest title from Square Enix. But is the game merely a simple port or a fully resurrected title itself? The answer to that is surprisingly both yes and no.

For those of you who weren't interested in RPGs in 2000 or, most likely, weren't afforded the opportunity to own the original title, allow me to provide you with a little backstory on the game itself. Players are cast as Lenneth, a Valkyrie (or battle-maiden) tasked by Odin to collect the souls of fallen warriors who are brave or skilled enough to be sent to Asgard. These resurrected soldiers would then fight for the gods against the hordes of demons, giants and other enemies foretold in the coming of Ragnarok, or the battle at the end of the world. Unfortunately for Lenneth and the gods, doomsday is fast approaching, and she only has a short amount of time to find, train and deliver these fighters known as Einherjar to Asgard's gates.

Concentrate to find soldiers or dungeons

To accomplish this goal, you'll need to travel Midgard, flying high about the ground searching for these fallen soldiers and discovering how they met their fateful ends so you can recruit them to Odin's cause. Doing so will require the use of Spiritual Concentration, which enacts the Valkyrie's heightened senses to detect the cries of the heroic dead in their final moments. While you can investigate these psychic flashes to find soldiers, you can also use them to track down towns or other locations to explore. Oftentimes, you'll find yourself returning to previous locations to flesh out the storylines of some of your party members, but you'll also use it to trigger specific events in the world or acquire special items or weapons, many of which are key to the success of Lenneth's mission.

Lenneth will also use this power to discover areas of evil in the world, such as ruins, caves and other structures that threaten the safety of the people of the land. Here, you'll explore these areas, solving environmental puzzles by shooting ice crystals to form stepladders and platforms, as well as deflecting beams of light and freezing monsters to stand on. Any battles you engage in are turn-based, although there is an element of real-time action tied to the system: Each party member is tied to one of the four face buttons, and pressing it once or more triggers an attack from that particular character. By timing your attacks just right, you can perform combinations that will juggle your opponents into the air, only to land directly into the oncoming blow of a secondary or tertiary attack. Successful combinations can increase your hit meter, and once you've filled it in one attack round, you can trigger a "Purify Weird Soul" strike for extraordinary damage. Even better, if you manage to refill the hit meter with one of these strikes, you can perform a super powerful combination with members of your party, which can potentially result in items or experience point bonuses.

Triggering a special attack takes timing

Like other RPGs, you'll inevitably collect tons of items; however, instead of buying or selling these items in shops, you'll actually create the equipment you need. Lenneth's power of Transmutation allows you to take any item, weapon or elemental artifact you receive and convert it into something else that you might want. This is one of the few ways that you can constantly replenish your stores of health potions and resurrection items, as well as replace any weapons that might break under the strain of battle. Utilizing this power costs Materialize Points, but you can convert any piece of equipment that you don't need into additional MP if you're ever running low.